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The Multilingual Subject

What does it mean to live in more than one language? Is “being multilingual” a personal talent, a burden of circumstance, a political necessity, a source of pleasure and knowledge, or a curse of history? In the new interdisciplinary honors seminar "The Multilingual Subject", Students will work with a range of philosophical, literary, historical, cognitive-scientific, and filmic texts in order to gain a richer understanding of the human condition in multiple-language settings and situations. Students will seek to discover how competence in more than one language has enriched intellectual traditions, given rise to new aesthetic forms, and changed the course of history. Considering how many University of Arizona students engage in spontaneous translation and “code-switching” on a daily basis, the goal of this course is to provide you with a conceptual vocabulary through which to identify and analyze the many benefits—and dilemmas—of living in multiple languages. Taught in English.

Class Number:

HNR 400

Grading:

Regular grades are awarded for this course: A, B, C, D, E. Available to qualified students for pass/fail option.